Underground, Meat-Eating Plant Found in Florida

By
ABC News
January 7, 2006, 7:22 AM ET
2 min read

L A K E   P L A C I D, Fla., Aug. 28, 2000 -- Botanists scouring a small area thatcontains some of Florida’s most varied creatures have made adiscovery straight out of a science fiction B movie: a meat-eatingplant that grows underground without direct sunlight.

Other than a tiny yellow flower that juts an inch above theground in spring, the plants grow completely underground.

“I don’t know of any other plant that does photosynthesisunderground — certainly not flowering plants,” said Kevin Hogan, aUniversity of Florida botanist who with fellow botanist StephenMulkey made the discovery.

“Here’s something that’s weird beyond belief.”

Trick Traps Insects

The plant’s “leaves” grow upward from the main stalkunderground, while “roots” grow downward. The species ofutricularia, a relative of the snapdragon, is unlike any otherknown, Hogan said.

The trick to this tiny plant is that it has a lower atmosphericpressure than the outside, experts say. So when it “feels” a tinyunderground insect such as a nematode brush past, a nodule on theplant opens, sucking it inside.

The scientists stumbled upon the plant during a field trip atCentral Florida’s Archbold Biological Station on the sandy, hillyspine of Central Florida running from Lake to Highlands counties.

Hogan said the plant was discovered when its yellow flowercaught their eye.

The vegetation on the ridge is very much like it was 50,000years ago when the area was the only land in Florida above water.Hogan said the white quartz sand of the ridge lets light flow belowthe surface, allowing for photosynthesis.

“I’ve been all over the world, South America, throughout thetropics, but this is like no place I’ve seen,” Hogan said.

Wildlife Station

The station was founded in 1941 by Richard Archbold, who hadcarried out biological explorations in the Indo-Australian region,Madagascar and New Guinea between 1929 and 1940.

When World War II put an end to his wanderings, Archboldreceived an estate south of Lake Placid from John A. Roebling, aNew Jersey industrialist whose family built the Brooklyn Bridge.

The number of species found at Archbold comprises 44 mammals,208 birds, 25 fish, 65 amphibians and reptiles, 535 vascularplants, and more than 4,000 insects and other invertebrates.

Of these, 15 species of animals — from the Florida black bear tothe Florida gopher frog — and 28 species of plants are listed asthreatened or endangered.